One of Golden Gate Park’s best-known attractions, the Conservatory of Flowers opened to the public way back in 1879. Plant person that I am, I simply cannot pass up a nursery, a garden or a conservatory; heck, I can’t even go to Home Depot to buy light bulbs without also stopping at the garden center and checking out every houseplant in sight. I’d been to this conservatory once before but that was back in the ’90s, so I definitely wanted to visit again—which I did, on a delightfully sunny Sunday morning.

There are five themed galleries: Lowland Tropics, Highland Tropics, Aquatic Plants, Potted Plants and a Special Exhibits area that happened to be closed (rats). The Lowland Tropics room sits beneath the conservatory’s upper dome. Filtered light coming in through the window panes creates a greenhouse environment for a tangled assortment of tropical plants and trees. I spent about 10 minutes wandering in here. Things I learned right off the bat from the brochure:

• The conservatory displays more than 1,750 species native to Borneo, Costa Rica, the Philippines and other countries in tropical regions.
• It’s whitewashed to reduce light intensity and cut down on the sun’s heat.
• Geckos (for those of you not up on biology, a type of lizard) live in the conservatory, where they pass the time chowing down on insect pests. (Nice life!) 

Many of the plants in the Potted Plants gallery were in ornamental urns. I could imagine Victorian ladies and gents wandering among the exotics while murmuring “Oh yes, quite lovely” in clipped British accents. That was the original intent of a plant conservatory—to transplant a bit of wonder and beauty from faraway jungles to a climate-controlled environment for the enjoyment of the masses.

My favorite room was the one with aquatic plants. It was damp and humid, and everything was growing with unrestrained vigor in and around a large pool. It had the most unusual vegetation, like Amazon water lilies with circular leaves that resembled huge green plates. I loved the pitcher plants (genus Nepenthe). The leaves on these vines have a jug-like shape, hence the name, and each “jug” has a striking burgundy lip. They’re also carnivorous. The pitchers hold a fluid that contains digestive enzymes, and insects that slip on the lip’s waxy surface tumble down into the fluid to be slowly consumed. Take a close look at this bizarre plant; it reminds me of an alien species. This room also had a lot of cool-looking bromeliads.

Actually, “Conservatory of Flowers” is a bit of a misnomer, because there aren’t many flowers—a few hibiscus blooms here, a flowering vine there. The flowers that do stand out are the orchids. Most of them were in the Highland Tropics room, which features plants that thrive in tropical areas between 3,000 and 7,000 feet in elevation. In the wild orchids grow off the gnarled bark of trees, but in the conservatory some of them were in hanging baskets. I don’t remember their names and frankly it doesn’t matter, because really, aren’t they all gorgeous? I especially liked the tiny orchids that grew in clusters, forming pastel sprays of color.

You can easily “do” the conservatory in 20 minutes, but if you’re not a gardener, botanist or a fan of tropical plants, you’ll probably be bored after that. This would be a great place to try out a new high-tech Nikon, capturing amazing close-ups of the jungly exuberance. It’s small, and there isn’t any place to sit and just take it all in. But I still think the Conservatory of Flowers is worth your time, simply because nature is so darn fascinating.

Greg’s advice: If you’re more interested in flowers than plants, Golden Gate Park has numerous opportunities to view them, including the Dahlia Dell (a very short walk from the conservatory entrance). Dahlias come in all sorts of colors, and some of the flowers are as big as dinner plates. The peak season is July through September, but there were still plenty of blooms later in the fall.

The Conservatory of Flowers is on John F. Kennedy Drive at the eastern end of Golden Gate Park; you can’t miss the elegant white Victorian exterior.